On Our Way

Growing roots in Lakeland so I headed for Houston this morning. Hooked up with “The Nerd” in Tallahassee and may wait out the hurricane here for a couple days.

Made the move: Switched from Verizon to Straight Talk prepaid from Walmart. $30 a month, no contract, 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, 30mb of web access and free 411 service. Bought the Samsung R451C. It’s not a flip phone so to protect the screen, I stopped in at Best Buy and purchased the clear screen protector from Zagg. It was the universal kit so I just measured and cut to fit. According to their website, this is military grade stuff developed to protect the edge of helicopter rotor blades and should keep all those nasty scratches away. I had plenty left over so my camera, Sansa Fuze and voice recorder got the treatment also.

I still had a week to go on my Verizon account but wanted to make sure everything worked before I left them for good. Went through the Straight Talk website to set up my account, purchase the first 30 days of service and port my old number to the new phone. Porting was my biggest concern but it only took five minutes. The phone has a very solid feel, takes a micro SD card for extra storage, bluetooth, voice dialing and a slide out key board just to name a few of the goodies. There is one annoying negative though. Every time a call is made a recorded voice tells me how many hours and minutes I have remaining. I can live with that. Made a few calls along the way and reception was crystal clear. Looks like a good choice so far.

The new “Queen of Mean”: Is this soccer or the WWF?

Wing-ding of an idea: Add a frosty Yuengling and I’d be in heaven.

Futures Q-School – Fifth and Final Round

My player is Jessy Tang

Whew! The marathon is over. Not too good today but the main goal was accomplished. Jessy is now a Futures Tour player.

Sieg Heil! Got a visit for the “Divot Nazi” early in the round warning us to fill them in.

Help me daddy! Paired with another overbearing father today. Called all the shots the entire time but fell short when he was needed most. Let me explain. We played the back nine first. On the 18th, a par five that has a pond guarding the front of the green, the young lady in question caught a very lucky break as her approach barley cleared the trouble and nestled in the rough, within the confines of the hazard, inches from falling back into the agua. Upon preparing for her chip, dad rattled off all the intricacies of the impending shot but was delinquent on one important detail. Forgot to tell her not to ground her club. An official witnessed the transgression and gave her two on the spot. This is what happens when you turn your brain off and let someone else do the thinking. It was all downhill for her after that.

Celebrity caddies everywhere: First we were paired with Worth Blackwelder and today it was former tour player Barb Mucha. She was on Kylene Pulley’s bag.

Dynamic duo: Team Blackwelder seeks return to LPGA

One down and one to go? Now I’m looking  for a loop for the LPGA Q-School.

Futures Q-School – Round Four

My player is Jessy Tang

The wind howled and the scores climbed. We shot three over but lost little ground. Made the cut. Round four scores here.

My bad: As we finished yesterday, I misplaced Jessy’s wedge into the wrong bag. She called the girl we were riding with, Sarah Brown, but was told it wasn’t there. She had another one made but it wasn’t necessary after all. Sarah had to look three times because she plays the same wedge. I recovered it this morning.

What rhymes with clank? It’s shank. Like the one we hit on the first hole. Made a great putt to same bogey.

Be all you can be: NOT! 75 Percent of Young Americans Are Unfit for Military Duty

Futures Q-School – Round Three

My player is Jessy Tang

Two over today at Huntington Hills. Our final two rounds are at The Yacht Club which was the best scenario. Third round scores are right here.

Easy peasy … Thought keeping up with golf carts would test my mettle but I find it easier than toting a tour sack the same distance.

Father does not know best: We had a young girl in our group who’s dad gave her an eighteen hole playing lesson and seemed never to be satisfied with the result. It was awful to watch but this is just the beginning. She also made it to the finals in the LPGA q-school.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses … Yesterday, one member of our group was from Egypt and today, Estonia was the flavor of the day.

Show me the  money! Jessy no longer has the “a”, designating herself as an amateur, next to her name. Turned pro for this event.

Speaking of money: Heard first prize is only $500. 286 people at around a grand a piece and the winner doesn’t even get her entry fee back?

Penny wise … With so much riding on the line, you would think a few extra bucks for a yardage book – even if poorly made – would be a sound investment but one girl in our group yesterday eschewed that option and used the numbers on the sprinklers and yardage blocks on the par threes. Big mistake. A couple of those blocks were off by 15-20 yards! Launched one into Earth orbit as a result.

Thank you Mr. President! Wonder where some of that stimulus cash wound up? Check this out. Just remember, we had to borrow the money to fund this stuff. Just another well thought out government program.

Futures Q-School – Round Two

My player is Jessy Tang

Another one over today. This time at Bridgewater. Took six hours to play. Seemed like seven. Round two wrap-up is a click away.

Bridgewater is by far the sorriest track of the four we play. The greens are pathetic and I’ve never seen so many fire ants. Must be the economy.

Found a jogging buddy: We were paired with Mallory Blackwelder and her dad Worth was on the bag. Fresh in from Korea, (after looping for Julie Inkster) Worth totaled around 18 hours of flight time and airport layovers in route. Got in yesterday and was bright eyed and bushy-tailed this morning. He’ll sleep well tonight for sure.

Hedging her bets: Mallory is signed up for the trifecta of q-schools. Futures, LPGA and LET are on her agenda.

Futures Q-School – Round One

My player is Jessy Tang

It wasn’t pretty but that doesn’t matter. Jessy kept battling and got it in +1 at Ridgewood Lakes. Check out the scores here.

The rule is that either the caddie or player must ride on the buggy and of course, I got the short straw. Half the time I jogged to the ball and was fortunate the sun stayed hidden for the entire round. Would have been a a major Gold Bond day if not.

Fuzzy math: The final field only had 286 hopefuls and I heard that 300 bodies would be needed to break even cost wise. The entry fee is going to average around a grand each so who came up with those numbers? Nancy Pelosi?

Speed demons: It took us five hours to play in a foursome which isn’t bad. Jessy said the rounds were taking seven hours on each course last year!! It was the same number of players but one course fewer. Speaking of the number of contestants, last year there was a waiting list.

Luck of the draw: A smattering of girls shot 90 and above. Very thankful we weren’t paired with one.

And The Winner is …

LPGA Names Michael Whan as its Commissioner. Who?

Back-to-back: Looks like Cindy Lacrosse is on a roll. Won the final Suncoast Q-Scool Prep Series event.

Who would have thought? Disgraced cloning expert convicted in South Korea.

Naked Truth, Legends and Soupy

Lake Region Yacht and Country Club was the last on my list to walk and I got it in on Friday. At 85 years old, it has the traditional small greens and short walks between holes. It is also in the best condition of the four tracks they’re going to use and the venue for the fifth and final round.

We’ve come a long way baby: From the Jan Stephenson bathtub-golf ball shot to a trio of LPGA players in the buff on a golf cart.

Aloha from The Legends Tour: Rosie Jones wins the Kinoshita Pearl Classic. A cool $50,000 for the winner.

You can’t make this up: -The possibility of humor dogged Sales from the start. He was born Milton Supman on Jan. 28, 1926, in the North Carolina backwater of Franklinton. The Supmans were the only Jews in town. Sales’ father ran a dry goods store that sold sheets to the Ku Klux Klan. – Gleaned from the L.A.Times obit for Soupy Sales.

Getting Closer

Only one more course left to see as I prepare for the Futures Q-School marathon. Went over to Bridgewater today and had to take a cart. No walkers allowed. Even though we’ve played them all, a second look is necessary.

One remaining: Cindy Lacrosse wins the third Suncoast Prep Series event.

And then there were two? Candidate pool shrinks for LPGA’s top job. Your thoughts?

Eight is not enough: $800,00+ in winnings that is! Another looper – with an Asian boss and daddy calling the shots – bites the dust even though she cashed in big this year. Already lined up a new whipping boy I heard. The focus is on winning and if you don’t produce (and in some cases, even if you do) you’re gone. Ain’t that lovely.

Suncoast at Bridgewater

The second Suncoast event was delayed by the weather and finished on Saturday. Lauren Hunt took home the gold.

Something to think about: $45 for unlimited cell phone usage including web browsing and text or how about $30 for 1000 minutes, 30 MB of data, 1000 text messages and free 441 calls! On top of that, it uses the Verizon network and you don’t sign a contract. It’s month to month. The service is from Straight Talk which is a collaboration between TracPhone and Walmart. It was launched last Summer in a few test markets but will roll out at all Walmarts this weekend according to an article in The Times. One major drawback is the limited number of phones but if you don’t need all the bells and whistles, it may be worth checking out. I will. A few things concern me though. The ability to transfer and backup your contact list seems non-existent and even though this service uses Verizon towers, it does not roam. In other words, Verizon owned cell towers only.